elevator communitcations Shedding Light on Dark Social

WHAT S THE DEAL WITH DARK SOCIAL

TRUE WORD OF MOUTH AT SCALE FEBRUARY X 2017

The Conversations that matter

Word of mouth (WOM). It isn’t new and it isn’t any less valuable than it has always been. Even before the rise of social media in the mid- 2000’s, WOM was highly regarded as the most important aspect of any marketing communications a company may have, yet the hardest to track or measure. If someone recommended a product to a friend or colleague, it was almost impossible to track that interaction. Surveys tried to address this massive void in marketing measurement, but ultimately fell short.

However, the vanguard of WOM came as platforms like Facebook took prominence in our everyday life. For a while, marketers thought they had finally cracked the void of WOM. Now we could track when someone said something on social media all the way through a purchase on e-commerce or even an in-store purchase with beacon technology. Life was good. With the rise of private social networks (aka Dark Social), more people are gravitating towards platforms like Snapchat over ultra-open networks like Twitter.

Suddenly we have true word of mouth at scale – but we can’t track it, or at least not easily.

WHEN EVERYTHING GOES DARK For the past few years, we as marketing professionals have enjoyed unprecedented amounts of contextually relevant information from our consumers, prospects and even those purchasing from our competition. Through social media monitoring, brands have built highly targeted campaigns, driving higher ROI while reducing waste. However, it hasn’t been perfect. Facebook, the single largest social media platform, has always been ‘semi-dark.’

Depending on someone’s security settings, you could see a lot or a little, with the default more towards ‘little.’ However, platforms like Twitter, or Google+, were almost completely public. As these increased in popularity, so too did the information. But now, with the decline in Twitter, and the basically eradication of Google+, this wealth of information has shifted back into the dark.

17 Bil

photos are sent over Facebook Messenger and 1 billion messages pass between people and businesses each month.

1 Bil

People now use WhatsApp

150 Mil people are using Snapchat

With the dramatic rise in messaging platforms like Snapchat, Messenger, and WhatsApp, the world now has over a billion people accessing one or more platforms that are hard to quantify. This means we’re back to the more conventional / traditional word of mouth, but at scale. So how do we embrace Dark Social?

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-02/snapchat-passes-twitter-in-daily-usage, https://www.wired.com/2016/02/one-billion-people-now-use-whatsapp/

Shedding a bit of

Light Working with Influencers

Making sure your brand is speaking the “right” language is critical. If your target audience is in Toronto, using the hashtag #The6ix makes total sense. However, if you’re speaking to a Calgary audience, then #YYC is far more appropriate. Discovering the local language can be a difference-maker, and one we often deploy.

Be In The Moment

Many brands have found great value in being on Snapchat or in Facebook Messenger. While there are different options, the key appears to be the acceptance of the ‘fleeting moment’, just like that amazing customer service interaction that isn’t recorded and isn’t put on file for future training. Brands that embrace the idea of creating inthe-moment content are the brands that, ironically, have their content live on in the stories that consumers tell one-another for days or more.

This goes beyond ‘real-time communications’ and is an approach we’re currently exploring.

Know Where The Audience Is

At the end of the day, many brands have jumped unwisely into Dark Social -most notably SnapChat- because they can’t avoid hearing about it in conferences or magazines. While there is great value in these platforms, if your audience is primarily somewhere else, then the effort and resources required may not be worth the investment. When we examine any platform, Dark Social or not, we always begin with that fundamental question: “Is our audience here?” The growth in messaging apps and other private-based social networks is expected to grow.

People like to share with people that they know.

This isn’t a new concept, but newer in the world of social media. At the end of the day, if ‘Dark Social’ is a part of your communications plan, remember that it is just ‘a part’ of your plan and should be evaluated against the goals and objectives you are trying to achieve.

Drop us a line Feeling a bit in the dark over dark social? We can help!

melanie@elevatorinc.com

elevatorinc.com

416-363-6444

@elevatorinc

Many thanks to i cons, aguycalledgary, Stefan de Haan, Patrice Curci, Arthur Shlain, dilayorganci, LA Great Streets, and Abdo at thenounproject.com for the icons.